Why You Won't See Firefox Mobile On Android, At Least For Now

James Quintana Pearce

Feb. 19, 2009 - 5:23 PM PST
Feb. 19, 2009 - 5:23 PM PST

Mozilla is a fair way behind the curve when it comes to launching a mobile browser — it got a pre-alpha version out only a week ago and it didn’t work at all. They do have some plans to bring a competitive mobile browser out — which they’ll refer to just as “Firefox” to avoid implying that it has been trimmed down (“Fennec” is the code name for the project).

ZDNet UK interviewed Mozilla’s head of mobile business, Jay Sullivan, who emphasized what Firefox will do differently to be considered an untrimmed-down browser: “If you look at the main pillars of what Firefox is about, there are certain key attributes. There are things like the ‘awesome bar’ [the URL bar that also acts as a search bar]. We will also be the first mobile browser that supports add-ons — add-ons will be a huge part of the experience, and of course security too…Another pillar will be support for web developers. People want to use HTML, Javascript and CSS, but they will also be able to access the camera, accelerometer, location and so on.”

Sullivan said that Mozilla would target Windows Mobile, Maemo, Symbian and LiMo as platforms for its browser. “The iPhone forbids it. The BlackBerry platform is basically a Java environment that they expose to application developers, and we’re not written in Java, so that’s tricky. The same is true for Android, so you won’t see our mobile browser on Android for the moment” … which is ironic considering how of Mozilla’s income came from Google.